Greenville's Big Day Out
Celebrity appearances and a new stadium groundbreaking capped off with decisive 3-0 win over Omaha
It’s been a long time coming: Greenville Triumph finally broke ground on its new soccer-specific stadium yesterday.
One of the league’s originals, and most successful clubs on the pitch, Greenville lacks one key aspect of successful, sustainable clubs: a permanent stadium. Over the years, the club has been forced to play on football fields as a secondary tenant. First, at Legacy Early College, a private prep school; and currently at Paladin Stadium, home of Furman University football.
This season, Greenville has the unfortunate distinction of being the only remaining professional USL club playing on a field with American Football lines. However, those days are officially numbered.
The new stadium, located about ten miles from downtown in nearby Mauldin, will be part of a new and growing development called Bridgeway Station. Current plans call for 10,000 seats, with add-on plans for permanent fixtures to support other events, such as concerts.
Celebrity Investor Helps Break Ground
In October, Greenville Triumph announced that Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho had joined its ownership group. The connection to the former Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, AC Milan and Brazilian National Team star comes via Wallace Cheves, a gaming executive and existing member of the GPS ownership group. Cheves connected with Ronaldinho through his involvement in the Grupo Ronaldinho ownership syndicate.
Ronaldinho made his first official visit to Greenville yesterday, surrounded by an entourage and security. Players and fans alike were giddy with excitement, with Greenville midfielder Sebastian Velasquez calling it a “dream come true” to meet his football idol.
The new stadium is tentatively scheduled to be ready for the 2026 season, a moment that cannot come soon enough for fans of the league, most of all Greenville fans.
Decisive Victory Over Defending Champs to Cap Off the Day
After all of the excitement from the midday groundbreaking ceremony, the players and coaches still had business that night: hosting defending league champions and bitter rivals Union Omaha.
A social media admin for the league stoked the flames earlier in the day, sharing the fact that Omaha has dominated the rivalry since 2023, winning the last four matches, and drawing the two before those. The last meeting was a playoff match at Omaha on November 9th, which the eventual champions won 2-1.
Greenville also entered the match with injuries mounting. Prematch reports listed six players out, including key players Michael Gonzalez, Ropapa Mensah, Rodrigo Robles and Velasquez. Gonzales and Velasquez suffered match ending injuries on Saturday, while Mensah and Robles did not appear at all in that match.
Nevertheless, Robles and Velasquez were on the bench roster to start last night’s match, but neither appeared.
Despite the injury concerns, Greenville put on an efficient and dominating performance. Leo Castro opened the scoring in the 36th minute, scoring a long-range bomb over an out-of-position Russell Shealy, Omaha’s keeper. Castro assisted on Ben Zakowski’s volley goal before the half ended, then added a second of his own early in the second half. Zakowski assisted on that one.
Optimism Runs Strong
With the promise of a new stadium, it seems professional soccer is here to stay in Greenville. The project, years in the making, now has progress, and Greenville will catch up with what are now much stronger league standards.
Controlling its own facilities offers immense flexibility in scheduling, promotions and additional revenue via concessions and sponsorships. It is hoped that the new facility will also jumpstart match attendance, down significantly over the last few years amidst stadium moves.
The stadium size also meets professional standards for higher divisions, leaving open the door for an eventual jump. The league tentatively plans to introduce promotion and relegation in 2027 or later.
For the moment, it appears the league is finally in a position where it no longer has to offer waivers on professional standards for teams joining the league. While it’s understood why such waivers were issued in the past in order to maintain a healthy number of league clubs, it shows the growing strength of the league.
What can you tell us about the GPS ownership group? Not too easy to find stuff online (as there are a zillion other links about Global Positioning System)